Lineage
by LaCasta
Summary: AU. A child from the doomed planet Earth is sent to another world in hopes that he will survive. Usual disclaimer applies. CONTINUED. Jor-El and Lara's son Lir-El is told about his origins.
1. Default Chapter

He looked again at his son. Perhaps it was the wrong decision. What kind of a life would he have on a strange world, among a different species? Assuming he'd even survive the trip.  
  
So little time. He'd warned them again and again of what his researchers had demonstrated, but they didn't want to believe that it could happen. Nothing would disrupt their world like that. But even his own prescience was faulty--he'd gravely under-estimated the time left.  
  
He'd have to send his son out alone. Alone and so young, using untested technology.  
  
His wife was standing next to him. She knew the doubts that were in his mind; he'd poured them out to her so often, in those frenzied nights of feverish work and wild despair.   
  
"His chances aren't good. But they're better than if he stays here." Her voice was firm. She had so much strength.   
  
"Another year and we'd have been out of the prototype stage. Another year after that, and we could have gone with him. What if we picked the wrong world?"  
  
"Love, it was the only one with an atmosphere he can breathe, with a climate he would find even remotely comfortable. We made the right choice."  
  
He sighed heavily. Even if--no, when--when their world was dead, one survivor would remain. Not just a survivor of their species, but of their lineage. Their family. It was a heavy burden. Too heavy for a child.  
  
He'd calculated everything, changing the amounts by tiny proportions with each day, as his son grew by those same tiny proportions. Drugs to ensure that he'd remember nothing of his previous life, so that he wouldn't carry that burden until he was ready. If he ever was. The air in the capsule would keep him asleep until it opened in an atmosphere he could breathe. If he had miscalculated, if the capsule never arrived, his child wouldn't awaken. Wouldn't know a moment of fear or loss. It was better like this.  
  
Already, their world was starting to show signs of fear, fear that would turn to panic. Panic that would, all too likely, turn to savagery. Best to spare the child that sight. Best for him to think the world a safe place. A place that nurtured him. A place that was good to him.   
  
She had gone back to watch over their son, memorizing his features for the days when he wouldn't be there. Her cool hand lay against the smooth, perfect, rounded skin of his cheek. Instinctively, still asleep, the child turned his head into her hand, as naturally as a falling object is drawn by gravity.  
  
"Now," she said, quietly. The calculations had shown one moment in which the path was clearest and most direct, with the least space debris and other obstacles. She scooped him up in her arms, savoring the weight of him for one last time.  
  
He'd not been as affectionate a father as he might have been. He was so busy with trying to use his wealth, his power, his influence. But at least he had hedged his bets by creating an escape for his son. That would have to be enough.  
  
He pressed his lips to the clear, smooth forehead, and then to his wife's. Her brow was furrowed with thought and worry, but to his eyes, even more beautiful for all that.   
  
She put their son in the capsule, and he added the document that would explain everything, eventually. He let her choose the moment to close their boy from their sight.  
  
"Goodbye, Alexander. Go to your next world."   
  
A/N:  
  
Continue with this AU?  
  
Yes, I should have admitted it was AU from the beginning, but that kinda woulda spoiled things, so forgive!  
  
I'd really love to know when you guessed the twist! 


	2. Chapter 2

Two decades of recklessness and twenty of cleaning up. That was a good rough estimate to Lara, as she identified pieces of debris and tagged them for destruction or retrieval for recycling. They'd spent too long filling space with vehicles and abandoning them, only realizing after costly disasters that their desire to send more vehicles up was outpacing gravity's ability to drag them to a planet's surface, burning them in the process.   
  
As the scanners found the junk, she matched them to her databases, pulling up a description that told her its component parts and origin. If it was worthwhile, it would be brought back to Krypton intact, if not, it would be sent into their solar system's star.   
  
She'd sent the scanners fairly far out, which meant less debris and more time to think between decisions, which was a mixed blessing as far as she was concerned.  
  
They'd finally given up hope of a child of their own. She laughed to herself as she wondered if her ratio of two decades of recklessness to twenty of cleaning up applied to their situation. She and Jor-El could be sure of a healthy child only if they chose to modify its genetic codes. She and her husband had so much in common, including remnants of genetic disruption from the two decades of the all-out war 130 years before their own birth. Neither she nor he wanted genetic modification.   
  
She tagged the remnant of an ancient satellite for destruction and sank her chin on her hands again. As far as they were concerned, nature and natural selection were better than tampering, even if it meant less control. They didn't look down on the Mods, the ones who had chosen genetic modification or whose parents had--well, Lara didn't, Jor, on the other hand, had a particular kind of snort he reserved for talking about them in private--but they themselves were firmly Nats. But somehow, it was different when it meant choices about their own child. Or lack thereof.  
  
The next object to come within the sensor range wasn't even close to anything in the database, but the computer had immediately classified it as of artificial origin. Oh, well, at least it was something else to think about. She tracked its progress and concluded that, making allowances for its somewhat erratic path, it was on a trajectory for Krypton. Definitely something else to think about.  
  
She knew she should notify somebody, but really, wouldn't they prefer it if she brought it up with more information attached? She justified that easily, and sent a pod to intercept and scan it more fully.  
  
It wasn't at all well-designed, by Kryptonian standards; the shape was inefficient and the materials, even though she couldn't even identify most of them, were primitive. Easy enough, given that, to scan the interior.  
  
She blinked rapidly. It couldn't be a life form inside! Somebody would have to be desperate to entrust their life to that feeble kind of vessel. Her mind was racing with questions as she magnified the scan.  
  
It was definitely a life form. It looked for all the world like a child. A child surely no older than three. She wondered why she felt a sudden fierce protectiveness for the child. Perhaps it was its defenselessness, alone and so precarious. She wanted to see it. She wanted to hold it, to talk to it.  
  
Holding her breath, she carefully attached the intercepting pod to the fragile vessel, terrified that the beam connecting the two would be enough to rip apart the tiny thing and its inhabitant. It would take a few hours to bring it safely to the surface, and without even knowing exactly why, she merely labeled it as unclassified material as she directed the pod to bring it to a storage facility.  
  
She couldn't wait to tell Jor about this.   
  
***  
  
A/N:  
  
Yes, I know that Kryptonians wouldn't use terms like hours and natural selection and so on, so just pretend that this has been run though an incredibly sophisticated translation device, 'k? :-) 


	3. Chapter 3

Jor-El waited at the storage facility for Lara and passed the time by wondering what had gotten her so excited. Excited, but a little bit scared, too. By the time he'd decided that yes, it would be fair to look inside the storage rooms, she was there.  
  
Something was definitely exciting her. Her eyes were glowing and her wide mouth was stretched even further in a grin. She grabbed his hand and led him inside to one of the rooms.  
  
He blinked at the indescribably primitive kind of pod that lay behind the sealed barrier. Maybe it was 200 some years old, but what was the--oh. He focused more closely. There was a child inside, apparently sleeping. A little boy.   
  
"Where did he come from?"  
  
"I have no idea. The ship was headed here, though."   
  
"But *who* would put a child in something like that?" It was deliberately endangering a child's life and he felt a wave of indignation. It was just plain *wrong.*  
  
"Maybe somebody desperate," she answered, quietly. He smiled to himself. That was his wife, all right.   
  
"What does the commission say? What will they do with him?"  
  
"I haven't told them yet."  
  
He turned away--with some reluctance--from looking at the sleeping form to stare at her. "I need to know more, first," she said, facing him down. He nodded after a moment.  
  
"Do we open it?"  
  
"I think so. The air inside is almost identical, just a slightly higher proportion of carbon dioxide. Since he's producing carbon dioxide and the ship seems to be issuing oxygen, it ought to be safe. I brought some medical equipment just in case."  
  
She used the pod control to undo the locking mechanism of the ship. Jor noticed her hands begin to shake once it was open, and they pressed against the viewing window. After a few moments, the child began to move fretfully, then yawned.   
  
He looked around, obviously curious but so far unafraid. *Taking it in stride,* Jor mused. *Little guy's got guts.* Moving awkwardly, as if stiff, the boy wriggled out of the cradle-like structure and to the floor of his vessel, then hesitated, looking down at the drop to the floor. *Or maybe not. It's barely twice his length, he'd not get hurt even if he landed on his face a dozen times.*   
  
The boy clearly decided that there was no other way down and there was no help forthcoming, and with a grimace, he jumped. Jor frowned as he hit the floor and stumbled, striking his face. He was unnaturally clumsy. He gasped as the child got up, holding a hand to his mouth. He was bleeding.  
  
Jor wasn't even half a step behind Lara as she crossed to the entrance and opened the door. Like her, he deliberately slowed down so as not to frighten the child by rushing in. The boy was sniffling slightly as he looked around the room, then jumped as Lara and Jor came in.   
  
He looked at them solemnly for an instant, then took a few hesitant steps in their direction. Both the adults crouched and after an uncertain look at Jor, the boy ran to Lara as she held her arms out. She scooped him up and he settled into her arms as if they were already familiar to him. He didn't even flinch as she ran a finger across the cut on his lip.   
  
***  
  
"All it would take is one unscrupulous person, Jor. And he's so *frail.*" They weren't so much arguing with each other as conducting concurrent arguments with themselves. He knew the sane and sensible thing to do was to hand the boy over to the commission and let the authorities decide what was to be done.   
  
He just wished he could be sure it was the right thing to do. He tried to convince himself and her. "They'd see that whatever he is, he has rights."  
  
"Are you willing to make *him* run that risk?" They'd taken the child home with them, cleaned him and changed his clothing, and then put him to bed. He'd still looked surprised at Jor's presence but had clung to Lara in a hug that, despite the fact that he was clearly squeezing as hard as he could, was another silent testimony to just how weakly he was compared to a normal child. "And even if it never happened, if nobody decided to see if there's anything interesting about the way he feels pain, just for starters, would they let him live a normal life?"  
  
"Would he *have* a normal life under any circumstances?" He paused and finally came as close as either of them had yet to the question in their minds. "Would even *we* be able to give him a normal life?" They had been able to seal the cut on his lip without any problem, at least. So they knew that some of their medicine would work on him.  
  
"If we kept him? We could say that he's a Nat, that we adopted him, that he's..."  
  
"Genetically flawed?" There weren't many around, and most children had been taught it was unkind, but there was still the sing-song taunt around Nats whose parents had opted not to engineer them. "GF-GF-GF-GF!"   
  
"You're probably right. We'd better just say that he's a Nat, and see if we can teach him not to let anything show." She sighed.  
  
She didn't envy a child who would grow up having to hide an incredible weakness from everyone around him. But at least he'd grow up with a family.   
  
A/N:  
I think it's stopping here, but then my track record on guessing just when the Muse has stopped hitting me with the Idea Brick is terrible. 


	4. Chapter 4

"But if I *had* it done, then it wouldn't be a problem. I could even play sports," Lir-El stormed. "I know you don't like the term 'GF' but that's what I am!"  
  
Jor-El sighed. They and their son had had this argument countless times, Rao knew, with growing vehemence. Maybe the boy was old enough now to be told. "Son, there's a reason we've not discussed yet. You're not from here," he started, mentally grinding his teeth at the feeble euphemism he'd chosen.  
  
"Yeah, you found me out east, I'm adopted. What does that have to do with it?"   
  
"We found you, but you came from a different world." As Lir stared, Jor clarified. "A different planet."  
  
"And you're only mentioning this now because--"  
  
"Because that's why we can't let you have any genetic modifications!" He immediately winced at his shout, but the frustration of too many years was too hard to keep dammed. "Because if we took you to a modifier, they'd find out immediately that you're not Kryptonian." He looked away from his son as he muttered, "Your mother and I don't know what they'd do. It might...be nothing, or they might take you away from us." He smiled grimly. "*That's* why we've not let you enhance anything to make you become normal. Not just parental capriciousness."  
  
Lir was staring at the ground as though there was an answer there, then raised his eyes in challenge. "How do you *know* I'm from another planet? Maybe I'm just so feeble you don't want to think that I'm Kryptonian?"  
  
"The ship that brought you seems a fairly clear indication."  
  
"There's a ship?" Lir's eyes were wide and he looked dismayed rather than excited. But then, that was just confirmation of what he'd felt all his life, that he didn't fit. To see proof that he wasn't just alienated from most normal activities, but a genuine alien...it would give him the combination of knowing that he belonged somewhere and knowing that the somewhere he belonged was far distant and unknown.   
  
"Your mother and I hid it." He turned and left the room and Lir followed.   
  
***  
  
A/N  
  
For the purposes of this story, I moved Jor-El and Lara to the early third age of Krypton's history, just before cloning was discovered.   
  
Rao is the early Kryptonite sun god. 


End file.
